Dr. King’s briefcase and other items from the Morehouse MLK Collection

The University of Georgia Press and Morehouse College have announced that they will develop a new book series based on the Martin Luther King Jr. collection held at Morehouse. The archive at Morehouse contains more than 10,000 items including handwritten letters, manuscripts, memorabilia, speeches and sermons, and 1,000 books from Dr. King’s personal library, many of which have handwritten notes on the pages.

The new book series will use the items in the archives to provide new analysis on Dr. King’s views on poverty, racial discrimination, nonviolence, capitalism, education, civil rights, and the Vietnam War.

Vicki L. Crawford, director of the Morehouse Martin Luther King Jr. Collection, said that “we are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Georgia Press to publish a series of books inspired by the unparalleled documents in the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. As a gathering of teachable texts, this series is an important step in our mission to foster greater understanding of Dr. King and the movement for civil and human rights.”

Comments (1)

There’s something inherently wrong with this book publishing agreement between Morehouse College and the University of Georgia(UGA). Point one: The University of Georgia has a long history of implicit and explicit racism against Black students (e.g., historically and currently). Point two: Morehouse College should have reached out to another HBCU that has its own university press(i.e., Howard University) to publish this book series. Point three: I am most confident the University of Georgia will find some clever way to be making the main decisions as to “what will or will not” be publish along with a “particular narrative” (of MLK) that will pushed forward in print. For those who dissent, I would venture in saying that you’ll never see history professors from the University of Georgia seeking out history professors from Morehouse College to write a book on Civil War history.

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